Fabrication of aligned carbon nanofiber doped with SnO2-Sb for efficient electrochemical removal of tetracycline

A new type of aligned carbon nanofibrous (ACFs) membrane with SnO 2 -Sb nanoparticles is fabricated in this work. The successfully synthesized SnO 2 -Sb/ACFs membrane is used as anode of electrochemical reaction for efficient removal of tetracycline (TC), and outstanding degradation and stability are obtained due to increased OER potential and improved conductivity by in-situ growth of SnO 2 -Sb on the ACFs membrane surface. • The aligned carbon nanofibrous membrane is prepared by high-speed electrospinning. • The in-situ growth of SnO 2 -Sb can increase OER potential and improve conductivity. • The flow-through SnO 2 -Sb/ACFs membrane shows outstanding degradation and stability. • The intermediates are identified and TC transformation pathways is obtained. In recent years, tetracycline (TC) has become an emerging refractory antibiotic pollutant due to excessive use and abuse. The aim of this work is to prepare aligned carbon nanofibrous (ACFs) membrane by electrospinning technology and then dope with SnO 2 -Sb to electrocatalytic degrade TC. The in-situ growth of SnO 2 -Sb on the carbon nanofiber surface to fabricate SnO 2 -Sb/ACFs membrane can increase the oxygen evolution reaction potential and improve conductivity. And the SnO 2 -Sb/ACFs membrane was used as the anodic membrane of a flow-through mode electrochemical membrane reactor to remove TC in aqueous solutions. The outstanding degradation performance of SnO 2 -Sb/ACFs membrane on TC was investigated systematically. The results show that the 3-layer SnO 2 -Sb/ACFs-3 membranes can effectively degrade 20 mg/L TC at an applied potential of 2.5 V. Moreover, SnO 2 -Sb/ACFs-3 membrane shows excellent degradation stability after 10 cycles of degradation experiments. For exploring the possible TC degradation pathways, HPLC-MS was used to identify the main intermediates during the electrochemical oxidation process. The anodic membrane electrode prepared in this work puts forward a new idea for the safe and efficient degradation of TC.